The Department of Homeland Security’s proposed rule would make the $103,265 fee permanent for every cap-subject H-1B petition, including those eligible for the advanced-degree exemption. The charge replaces a temporary fee first imposed last year that was blocked by a federal judge in June.

The worker visas are heavily relied on in the tech, education, and research industries.

“The proposed H‑1B fee is intended to recover the costs incurred across the federal government to adjudicate, vet, and support lawful immigration programs that otherwise must be funded by taxpayers.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said the fee would cover federal government costs of administering the legal immigration system — including actions carried out by DHS, the Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of Labor.

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers with training in specialty occupations. 65,000 visas are offered annually under the regular cap, with another 20,000 for workers holding a master’s degree or higher from a U.S. institution. Those visas typically came with fees between $2,000 and $5,000 before Trump’s order last year.

President Trump has argued the H-1B program is abused by many companies who replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor. But business groups and many U.S. companies have contended the program is needed to address a lack of qualified American workers for certain jobs and to allow American firms to bring in the most skilled workers to support the U.S. economy.

The proposed fee would apply to all cap-subject H-1B petitions, including petitions filed for some foreign students already in the United States seeking to change to H-1B status. It would not apply to cap-exempt H-1B petitions — routine extensions for current H-1B holders generally are not subject to the annual cap.

The temporary fee increase expires next month, one year after it was issued. The proposed rule by DHS was posted for public inspection Monday and is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday. The charge could be finalized by the end of the year.

According to court filings, about 70 employers had paid the $100,000 fee on a total of 85 visa applications as of late February — before a federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s original charge, ruling it an unauthorized tax without congressional approval.

An appeals court is reviewing the judge’s decision while a different court considers whether a challenge to the fee by a major business group was properly rejected.

The fee is being challenged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Democratic-led states, and a coalition of labor unions and employers. Those complaints could be altered to challenge the rule proposed this week once it is finalized.

The Trump administration has also ordered increased vetting of H-1B applicants and proposed a new visa selection process that would favor higher-skilled and better-paid workers. Earlier this month, DHS added fees of up to $4,500 to applications to extend the stay of H-1B workers or to transfer employees based in other countries to the U.S.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn’t mince words.

DHS IS CALLING ON GOVERNOR ABIGAIL SPANBERGER AND HER FELLOW SANCTUARY POLITICIANS TO COMMIT TO NOT RELEASING THESE CRIMINALS FROM JAIL AND TO INSTEAD HAND THEM OVER TO ICE.

Homeland Security

@DHSgov · Wed, Aug 19, 12:20 PM

𝕏

For four years, the Biden Administration released MILLIONS of criminals like this into our communities. @GovernorVA must turn this depraved killer over to us so we can REMOVE him from our nation. Homeland Security (@DHSgov) The Biden administration hand-delivered Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos to the streets of Fairfax County. Cedillos-Campos is a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador who was arrested by CBP in 2024, after illegally crossing the Biden administration’s open border near El Paso, TX. After his arrest, he was RELEASED into the interior of our country. @SecMullinDHS are now enforcing the law, arresting illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country—and have reversed Biden’s deadly catch and release policy. https://nitter.net/DHSgov/status/2090118577307197765#m

View on X →

Mullin added that under Spanberger, Virginia “has become a magnet for illegal alien crime” and that “these reckless sanctuary policies are putting American lives at risk.”

The three accused predators now face federal immigration charges alongside their state criminal cases.

ICE agents arrested Efren Ramirez Escobedo of Mexico, a got-away previously charged with sexual assault of a victim between 13 and 14 years old as well as sexual assault involving forcible intercourse.

Agents also arrested Bayron Jose De Paz-Lopez of Guatemala, charged with nine counts of child solicitation and attempted sexual assault against a child under 15 years old.

Paz-Lopez crossed the border in 2021 and was released into the U.S. interior by the Biden administration.

The third arrest: Santos Bautista-Molina of Honduras, charged with nine counts of child solicitation and attempted sexual assault against a child under 15.

Bautista-Molina has been living illegally in the U.S. for over 20 years, having first crossed the southern border in September 2005.

ICE has lodged detainers for all three. The question now: will Spanberger’s sanctuary administration honor those detainers — or release the accused predators back onto Virginia streets?

On August 15, 2026, the DNC staked out two positions on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during its summer meeting in Austin, Texas: a resolution seeking to abolish ICE entirely, and another looking to gut it. Both passed unanimously by voice vote.

So much for “the establishment.”

The DNC Resolutions Committee advanced the abolishment motion 25-12, urging “Democratic members of Congress to craft legislation abolishing ICE and enacting immigration reform that provides pathways to citizenship, protects workers, and ensures dignity for all impacted people.”

In a lame attempt to soften the proposal, the committee backed a separate resolution calling for “concrete reforms” to ICE.

Neither resolution is binding. The final DNC platform will be set at the 2028 Democratic National Convention.

“Democrats made it official: they care more about protecting violent illegal aliens than American families.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters didn’t mince words in his response Saturday.

“While President Trump and Republicans are securing our border and standing with law enforcement, Democrats want to let dangerous illegal criminals run wild in our communities,” Gruters said. “This resolution is political suicide, and Democrats will pay for choosing open borders over public safety, border security, and backing the blue.”

The timing couldn’t be worse for Democrats.

After a staggering 11 million illegal aliens flooded into the United States during Joe Biden’s disastrous tenure, the Trump administration has secured the Southwest border.

On Thursday, DHS reported a 15th straight month of zero releases at the border.

“Again this month, the results are clear: President Trump’s border security agenda is restoring order and putting the safety of the American people first,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the press release.

Drug seizures are 54 percent higher over the current fiscal year than under Biden during the same period. Agents seized 1,054 pounds of fentanyl and nearly 80 pounds of heroin at the border as of July, DHS reported.

Corporate media outlets refuse to give Trump credit for the corresponding crime drops.

The Associated Press blamed “social isolation and difficulties accessing addiction treatment” for pandemic-era drug spikes when reporting a 14 percent decline in overdose deaths in 2025. AP couldn’t bring itself to note the obvious: Biden’s open border allowed a wave of cartel-funded drug pushers to pump poison into American communities at record rates.

NPR audaciously reported earlier this year that “Biden made big gains battling street fentanyl but lost the messaging war to Trump.”

The truth? Trump designated illicit fentanyl and its precursors as Weapons of Mass Destruction, treating the poison with the full force of national security tools. He designated cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. And he imposed tariffs targeting China and Mexico, forcing Beijing to tighten controls on 13 key precursor chemicals.

The administration has rounded up and deported some of the worst international drug pushers on earth.

On Friday, the FBI released official crime data for the first half of 2026, showing the U.S. homicide rate fell to its lowest level in the history of recorded data.

ICE arrested 51,000 violent criminals in July alone — the highest monthly number recorded by the Trump administration.

“Instead of trying to abolish ICE, Democrats should be thanking ICE law enforcement officers for putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members from American communities.”

The White House fired back hard at the DNC resolution.

“Many of these criminals were released from jails by Democrat radical politicians,” the White House said in a statement. “President Trump’s efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities is already delivering results including the lowest homicide rate in 125 years.”

Now a Democratic Party commandeered by the radical left wants to abolish the very agency protecting Americans from violent criminals. They can’t pretend otherwise any longer.

They just passed a resolution spelling out their intentions.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Thursday that daily border apprehensions are now at their lowest level in 30 years.

“President Trump’s border security agenda is restoring order and putting the safety of the American people first.”

The numbers tell the story the mainstream media won’t.

Under Biden, the border was a revolving door — catch and release, parole abuse, and record-breaking crossings month after month. Under Trump, that stops cold.

“DHS remains focused on enforcing our immigration laws, securing the border, and ensuring those who enter our country illegally are removed swiftly,” Mullin said. “Thanks to the strong leadership of President Trump, we have the most secure border in history.”

Meanwhile, contraband seizures in July alone were 26% higher than under Biden. Authorities seized cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana — stopping deadly drugs before they reach American communities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection also enforced Trump’s tariff policies, flagging $23 billion in duties identified for collection in July.

CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott credited the results to clear policy and strong enforcement.

“Clear policy, strong enforcement, and dedicated frontline personnel are delivering results at our borders.”

“With the support of President Trump and Secretary Mullin, CBP is securing our nation against illegal crossings, dangerous individuals, and illicit drugs while keeping lawful trade and travel moving,” Scott said. “These results show what is possible when border security is treated as a national priority.”

The administration isn’t slowing down.

Last month, the House advanced the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act — legislation that would codify Trump’s executive orders into law. The bill criminalizes visa overstays, increases penalties for unlawful entry, and effectively ends catch-and-release by requiring most illegal migrants to be detained or returned while their cases are pending.

It also tightens asylum eligibility and humanitarian parole — closing the loopholes Biden used to wave millions across the line.

The measure directs DHS to modernize border facilities, expand CBP staffing, and deploy more surveillance technology — including drones, radar systems, biometric screening, and DNA collection.

Trump promised the most secure border in American history.

Fifteen months of zero releases. Ninety-four percent fewer apprehensions. Record contraband seizures.

He’s delivering.

The President’s Military Spouse Commission will give the White House a direct line to the challenges facing military spouses — childcare, employment, housing, health care, education, and the toll of repeated deployments. These issues have long been recognized as critical factors not only in the well-being of military families but also in retention rates and overall force readiness. Military leaders and advocacy groups have repeatedly emphasized that when families struggle, service members are less likely to reenlist, creating both human and strategic costs for the armed forces.

Jennifer Hegseth, wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, will chair the commission. Her appointment places a military spouse in the leadership role, reflecting the administration’s stated commitment to ensuring those with lived experience guide policy development in this area.

“In times of peace and in the crucible of conflict, they rise to meet every challenge and bear the pressures and sacrifices with relentless grace and fortitude.”

Trump signed the order Monday afternoon alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and several military spouses, according to a White House official. The ceremonial signing underscored the administration’s positioning of military family support as a national security priority, not merely a quality-of-life issue.

The commission will advise the president on policies affecting military spouses and families and provide annual recommendations to improve their quality of life while strengthening military readiness. This structure creates a formal mechanism for sustained attention to these issues at the highest levels of government, rather than relying on ad hoc reviews or lower-level agency initiatives.

Trump will appoint an executive director. Christie Mullin, wife of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and 20 other military spouses representing the service secretaries, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and each branch’s senior enlisted leader will serve as commission members. The composition reflects an effort to capture perspectives across all service branches and rank structures, recognizing that challenges may vary significantly between families of junior enlisted personnel and senior officers.

Military spouse employment and pay are the top concerns for active-duty military families, followed by time away from family, child care, housing and housing allowances, and children’s education, according to Blue Star Families’ latest Military Family Lifestyle Survey. The employment challenge is particularly acute given that military spouses frequently must relocate across state lines, disrupting careers and professional licensing. Studies have shown military spouse unemployment rates significantly exceed national averages, with the transient nature of military life creating barriers to career advancement and economic stability.

An estimated 1 million children have at least one parent serving on active duty, according to government website Military One Source. These children face unique educational and emotional challenges, including frequent school changes, parental deployments to combat zones, and the stress of constant relocation. The scale of this population underscores why education and childcare access remain persistent policy concerns.

During his first term, Trump expanded support for military families by improving occupational license portability for military spouses, broadening access to remote and flexible work, and increasing opportunities for federal employment. These initiatives addressed some of the structural barriers that make it difficult for spouses to maintain continuous employment despite frequent moves across state and international borders.

In 2018, Trump signed legislation allowing military spouses to claim the same state of legal residence as their active-duty spouse, even when military orders require the family to move elsewhere. This legislative change simplified tax filing and voting procedures for families who might otherwise face complicated multi-state obligations.

In a Military Spouse Day proclamation signed in May, Trump said the nation’s 250 years of freedom were made possible by the Armed Forces and the “selfless spouses” who have shared in the burden of military service across generations. The proclamation connected military family support to the broader narrative of American history and national defense.

He acknowledged at the time “more work is needed” in relation to employment, quality housing, affordable childcare, accessible healthcare, and education for military families. This acknowledgment came despite previous efforts, suggesting that the complexity and scope of these challenges require sustained, high-level attention rather than one-time fixes.

The commission is designed to tackle those challenges from the ground up — giving military families a direct voice in the policies that affect their daily lives. By institutionalizing this input through annual recommendations directly to the president, the structure aims to create accountability and ensure military family concerns remain visible at the highest levels of policymaking.

The revelations are staggering.

The People’s Republic of China hacked voter data for 220 million Americans. The U.S. intelligence community deliberately downplayed China’s penetration of the electoral system to deceive Trump.

The intel agencies knew China had a sophisticated strategy from 2018 to defeat Trump’s reelection in 2020 — including paying American journalists to write negative stories about the president. The Presidential Daily Brief was manipulated to keep Trump in the dark.

“THE U.S. GOVERNMENT KNEW THAT VOTING MACHINES WERE VULNERABLE AND COULD COMPROMISE U.S. ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE.”

The Trump administration’s investigation uncovered five major problems. First, China’s hack gave Beijing access to the personal data of 220 million Americans. Second, the intelligence community buried evidence of Chinese interference to protect Biden’s 2020 campaign.

Third, federal agencies knew voting machines were vulnerable but did nothing. Fourth, when evidence of fraud surfaced — including in Michigan — the Biden administration covered it up or slow-walked investigations.

Fifth, DHS found approximately 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in just a small sample of states. The next day, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed 400,000 dead people remained registered to vote — and the real numbers are believed far higher because Democratic states refused to share voter data.

Trump identified the American electoral system as being almost broken. But that’s no accident.

American elections were once the envy of the world. Americans voted on one day, and results were known that night. Now American elections resemble those in unstable and corrupt countries.

Trump has called communism the greatest threat America has ever faced. The Chinese Communist Party and domestic communists are working together to demolish America — and destroying election integrity is one of their most important tools.

The communists are advancing a revolution to change America’s polity from a constitutional republic to communism. At a fundamental level, these actors coordinate in what amounts to a modern Communist International.

The CCP works with major organizations like ActBlue, Tides, Neville Roy Singham and his scores of organizations, George and Alexander Soros and their dozens of groups, the Democratic Party itself, and associated think tanks and law firms.

Destroying election integrity is only one mechanism. Another is funding and facilitating mass immigration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized the domestic and international dimensions of communist terror at a July 16, 2026 ministerial on political terrorism from the left.

Communist influence extends beyond U.S. borders. In South Korea, CCP influence is endemic in A-WEB — the Association of World Election Bodies, composed of 118 election management bodies — and South Korea’s National Election Commission.

U.S. citizen Morse Tan, who served in the first Trump administration as ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, exposed fraud in South Korea’s June 3, 2025 presidential election as part of an international monitoring team. Tan is now under a travel ban and must remain in South Korea into August in connection with a criminal defamation investigation — for comments he made in Washington about South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

Tan is effectively a political prisoner, held because he exposed CCP influence in South Korean elections.

Trump stated that Americans — Democrats and Republicans alike — should unite to evict communist China from U.S. elections. But today’s Democrats are neo-Bolsheviks operating under the old Bolshevik slogan: “The worse, the better.”

Before seizing power, the Bolsheviks worked to make conditions in Russia worse, not better. They sought to destabilize and weaken the country to further their revolution. Today’s neo-Bolsheviks are laboring to destroy America and execute the same playbook.

During Trump’s February 2026 State of the Union address, Democrats refused to stand and celebrate American heroes. They don’t want to celebrate America — they want to terminate it and replace it with a communist polity.

That’s why Trump has called it the greatest threat Americans have faced in their history.

Election interference is a major mechanism to advance neo-Bolshevik tyranny in the United States. Election vulnerabilities, along with immigration, are the most immediate problems Americans must address.

America faces a communist revolution. The threat is existential, and it’s targeting American institutions, identity, and the American people themselves.

Current and former ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers told the Washington Examiner that exhaustion and chaotic leadership have gutted morale. Some officers — including Trump voters — claimed the agency is pushing underqualified recruits onto the street without proper training or background checks cleared.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller reportedly demanded 3,000 arrests per day during a heated meeting with ICE leaders in May 2025. The Trump administration has logged roughly 900,000 arrests in Trump’s second term — about 1,600 arrests per day, the highest rate under any administration.

“We’re being pushed to a breaking point. I don’t know where it will go, but it’s nowhere good.”

One ICE officer hired before the current administration said “mistakes are made because [officers are] overworked” on top of “pressure” from leadership “to get [new recruits] guns and badges quick.”

A second officer with more than a decade of experience said the administration had managed to upset some employees who celebrated Trump’s 2024 electoral win.

“Many on the right will think this is an attack on Trump,” he said. “I voted for Trump this time around. I believe in immigration enforcement. But man, it’s so disorganized and chaotic.”

The officer said requests for time off were regularly refused or canceled after initially being approved. Another officer said weekends off have become the exception.

“They constantly call us into work on our days off,” one immigration enforcement officer told the Washington Examiner.

Over the past two weeks, ICE officers conducted two separate traffic stops that resulted in the fatal encounters of individuals not subject to active immigration enforcement in both Maine and Texas. A third individual was struck by a tractor-trailer in Florida while fleeing ICE and other immigration enforcement personnel.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced this week that the department would pause the use of traffic stops during all immigration enforcement proceedings. Just one day later, however, Trump announced on social media that ICE would not pause using traffic stops as a law enforcement tool.

ICE has approximately 6,000 officers tasked with immigration enforcement inside the United States, as well as 10,000 new employees moving through the recruitment pipeline.

Officers and supervisors hired prior to 2025 claimed that new recruits being put on the street are underqualified and, in some cases, have not completed mandatory federal government background checks or been issued security clearances.

“A supervisor with the fugitive operations unit expressed frustration at how many teams are filled with officers who haven’t even cleared background and don’t have a security clearance. It’s not safe,” the first officer said.

A retired official who speaks with current ICE leadership regularly said he had heard the same from several field office directors.

“Some backgrounds take 3-6 months, so the person could have graduated and be working at a field office before their full clearance gets granted or denied,” the official said.

The former senior ICE official said ICE does not have an approved traffic stop or vehicle pursuit policy.

“The officers in the field need training, not just on procedures and tactics but on their legal authorities and what constitutes their ability to legally make a traffic stop and question/detain persons,” the former senior ICE official wrote in a text message. “I have personally been told by officers that they are concerned because without sufficient policies and training they fear they could be held personally liable.”

Field office directors who cannot hit arrest goals are being replaced. In order to meet the demands from Washington, field office directors “are pushing us to the breaking point,” said the second officer.

ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025

James Hamilton, a security consultant and former FBI supervisory special agent, said complaints from ICE were not unusual and part of the job.

“That’s law enforcement. I mean, I worked my a** off as an FBI agent. So no one promised you 40-hour weeks,” said Hamilton. “What happened in the last four years as an ICE agent, in terms of the frequency and the rhythm, if you will, of work — it was nowhere near what it is today.”

Hamilton said federal agents are not good at car stops because they get so little exposure to them compared to local and state police. He suggested the best course of action is to call local and state police to assist when it comes to attempting traffic stops.

However, the nature of ICE’s work has pushed away virtually all major cities from cooperating with ICE, leaving the federal agency largely on its own.

When asked about the plethora of officer complaints, a DHS spokesperson stated in an email Friday evening that “leave” for employees across the department was not being canceled and said the department believed morale was most affected by Democratic politicians smearing ICE.

“The worst thing for morale is sanctuary politicians’ constant smears against ICE including likening them to the gestapo, slave patrols, and secret police. This type of rhetoric is contributing to our officers facing coordinated campaigns of violence against them including a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them, 3,300% increase in vehicle attacks, and an 8,000% increase in death threats.”

President Trump and Secretary Mullin will always stand with ICE law enforcement officers, the DHS spokesperson said.

Trump made the announcement Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle, promising aggressive federal enforcement targeting both the illegal drivers and the schools that train them.

“My administration will soon take historic action to get illegal alien truck drivers off the roads who are just killing a lot of people,” Trump said. “They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol, and they shouldn’t be driving these things.”

“They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol, and they shouldn’t be driving these things.”

The president cited the July death of Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira, who was run down by an illegal migrant from Haiti while conducting a safety check on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County.

The driver, Michael Bon, 33, had been living in the U.S. illegally for over a year. He entered during the Biden administration on July 2, 2024, applied for Temporary Protected Status in October 2024, but was never granted it. The Department of Homeland Security notified him in June 2025 that he would have to return to Haiti — but he stayed anyway and obtained a Massachusetts-issued commercial driver’s license.

“We’re here in Pennsylvania, where State Trooper Michael Pahira, Jr., was killed just two weeks ago by an illegal alien operating a semi-truck on a commercial driver’s license, which he should never have had,” Trump said.

The Trump administration is now deploying a multi-agency crackdown. In February, the Department of Transportation announced inspections of more than 550 truck driver schools nationwide, looking for violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration safety standards.

“For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild, West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions. The buck stops with me,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.

“For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild, West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions. The buck stops with me.”

This month, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported that 75 schools are now being charged with fraud — suspected of falsifying training records, providing improper certifications, and failing to properly train drivers.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the fraud has cost American lives.

“Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways,” Mullin said.

“DHS law enforcement is partnering with the Department of Transportation to eliminate CDL fraud, strengthen the integrity of the CDL system, and investigate commercial driver’s license schools throughout the country. This is a whole of government approach to keep America’s roads safe.”

Transportation Secretary Duffy said the crackdown is already producing results.

“USDOT has spent the last year rooting out bad actors from our trucking industry,” Duffy said. “We’ve knocked over 24,000 drivers off our roads for failing to speak English, forced states to cancel over 28,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers, and purged over 9,500 unqualified training schools from our FMCSA registry.”

“DHS will be a force multiplier of our efforts to clean up America’s roads. President Trump is using every lever at his disposal to ensure the safety of American families.”

Duffy added on X: “FRAUDSTERS CAN RUN, BUT THEY CAN’T DRIVE.”

“If you cheat the system by giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses: WE WILL FIND YOU, AND YOU WILL PAY A HEAVY PRICE. Our @DHSgov partnership is a massive force multiplier as we shut down these corrupt operations. President Trump is using every lever to clean up our roads and keep Americans safe.”

Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways. @DHSgov law enforcement is partnering with the @USDOT to eliminate CDL fraud,… https://t.co/oaT4ovzidJ

— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) July 16, 2026

NEW: DHS and DOT have announced they've identified 75 entry level truck driver CDL schools across the US that are suspected of fraudulently helping non-citizen drivers qualify for CDLs, and the agencies are partnering to investigate them, with HSI and DOT already visiting some of… pic.twitter.com/o6MiZBTWA5

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 16, 2026

During the confirmation hearing of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Wednesday, the California Democrat demanded accountability for ICE agents who shot two illegal aliens in Texas and Maine. Both suspects allegedly refused lawful orders and attacked officers with their vehicles, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Padilla initially asked Blanche whether state and local law enforcement should investigate federal officer-involved incidents. Then he pivoted to a more direct demand.

“AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, THOSE OFFICERS WERE NOT FIRED, THEY HAVE NOT FACED ANY CHARGES.”

The senator cited earlier cases involving Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both of whom were fatally shot by ICE agents after confrontations. He claimed the passage of months without charges represents a failure of justice.

Blanche pushed back. “I very much disagree with the statement you just made. The mere passage of time between January and today doesn’t mean there’s no justice.”

In all four cases Padilla referenced, available evidence shows suspects refusing to comply with lawful orders and making extremely dangerous decisions — from targeting officers with vehicles to fleeing at high speeds to physically resisting arrest.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin pointed to the rising danger ICE agents face. “As our officers carry out operations to enforce our nations laws, they are facing a more than 1,300% increase in vehicle attacks,” Mullin stated Wednesday.

Vehicle attacks on ICE agents have surged 1,300% as Democrats encourage resistance to deportation enforcement.

The Pretti case is the only one that did not involve alleged weaponization of a vehicle. It included a confusing timeline involving Pretti carrying a gun, with an officer apparently believing he was reaching for it while another officer was removing it from his person. That chaotic confrontation does not automatically condemn the officer who fired, despite Padilla’s framing.

When Padilla claims “people continuing to die, not just in detention facilities, but on the streets of America,” he leaves out a critical fact: Democrats are coaching illegal aliens to resist arrest and put themselves in dangerous confrontations.

Deportations are only deadly because of Democrat resistance. Left-wing agitators are willing to give their lives to protect rapists and murderers from justice.

The anti-enforcement agitation is coordinated. Many illegal aliens are coached on how to resist police, and American agitators shielding them operate as a unified network.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a webinar providing tips for illegal aliens to evade arrests at homes, workplaces, or in public. Dan Goldman posted a video online calling on illegal aliens to make a plan for ICE encounters. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued multilingual flyers advising illegal aliens on how to evade arrest. California Governor Gavin Newsom released guides and sanctuary laws advising illegal aliens how to recognize ICE, block entry, and defy arrest.

Despite a moment Tuesday where Mullin appeared to cave to the mob by blocking ICE officers from using traffic stops, President Donald Trump put the department back on track. The administration now has zero appetite for allowing the left to control mass deportation.

“Our #1 goal is to keep our officers safe and get criminals OFF our streets. Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are. If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW,” Mullin said. “We remind illegal aliens attempting to evade arrest is dangerous. This reckless illegal alien activity comes after sanctuary politicians held webinars and shared resources for how to openly defy [ICE].”

The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.

Our #1 goal is to keep our officers safe and get criminals OFF our streets. Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are. If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW. As our officers carry out operations to enforce our nations laws, they are facing a more than 1,300%… pic.twitter.com/dnI1YJAN3N

— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) July 15, 2026

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this week that the announcement would concern elections and would be “really, really big news.”

“It doesn’t get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don’t have a country.”

An administration official familiar with the preparations told the Washington Examiner internal discussions had centered on election security and possible voting-machine vulnerabilities that could be susceptible to foreign cyber intrusions.

The official expected acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to provide intelligence material. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and FBI Director Kash Patel are also expected to participate, though the official cautioned that assessment was based partly on informed speculation, not a full briefing.

Notably, the source downplayed social media claims that the results of the 2020 election in Georgia would be declared “illegitimate.”

A second source close to the FBI said bureau personnel as of Tuesday had not been read into a new election-interference finding. The source said the speech had originally been expected Tuesday, July 14, before being moved to Thursday.

Some officials learned of the change through Trump’s Monday afternoon Truth Social post announcing the speech.

Both sources said the speech could also increase pressure on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act — the Republican-backed bill requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cautioned against advance reporting on the substance of the speech.

“As usual, anonymous sources are speculating about what President Trump will say during his speech on Thursday evening,” Leavitt said. “The truth is, nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say, which is why everyone should tune in.”

If Trump releases evidence that foreign actors altered votes or penetrated voting machines in 2020 in ways big enough to alter the outcome, it would mark a major break from the government’s public findings.

On March 16, 2021, under the Biden administration, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an assessment finding no indication that a foreign actor attempted to alter voter registration, ballot casting, vote tabulation, or the reporting of results.

A companion report released that month by the Biden administration’s Justice and Homeland Security departments found no evidence that a foreign government prevented voting, changed votes, or compromised election infrastructure to manipulate the outcome.

However, those reports indicated Russia, Iran, and China each posed different election-related threats. Russian operatives used intelligence-linked intermediaries and fabricated social-media identities to promote allegations about Biden and amplify claims of election fraud. Russian hackers also compromised some state and local government networks and extracted voter information.

From August through November 2020, during Trump’s first administration, Iranian operatives probed state election websites, stole voter information, and sent threatening emails to Democrats while posing as the Proud Boys.

Prior intelligence reports surrounding China’s planned intervention in the 2020 election remain one of the most politically explosive parts of the record. The Biden administration’s March 2021 intelligence assessment said Beijing considered but did not deploy an operation intended to change the presidential outcome.

But a dissenting intelligence official concluded China took at least some steps during the summer of 2020 to undermine Trump’s reelection prospects through public statements and media messaging.

Separate FBI records released in 2025, during Trump’s second administration, showed the bureau briefly circulated raw intelligence alleging a more direct Chinese operation involving fake U.S. driver’s licenses and mail ballots.

The report, submitted by the FBI’s field office in Albany, New York, claimed the Chinese Communist Party had sent fake licenses to sympathizers in the United States who would vote for Biden. The FBI circulated the report Sept. 25, 2020 — one day after then-FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that the bureau had not seen “any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort.”

FBI headquarters recalled the report the same day it was circulated and instructed personnel to delete it from bureau systems.

According to records obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Assistant FBI Director Marshall Yates wrote in a June 27, 2025, letter that one reason cited internally was that “the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.”

The documents do not prove the alleged ballot scheme occurred. However, FBI personnel described the underlying information as uncorroborated and weighed whether the claim could itself be Chinese disinformation.

The records also showed Customs and Border Protection had seized nearly 20,000 fake U.S. driver’s licenses — most from China and Hong Kong — at Chicago O’Hare in the first half of 2020. The FBI documents did not directly connect those seizures to the alleged voting scheme, but investigators described them as “logical investigative leads” that were not pursued.

Voting-machine vulnerabilities have also drawn scrutiny. On June 3, 2022, under the Biden administration, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency disclosed vulnerabilities in certain Dominion ImageCast X ballot-marking devices but said it had “no evidence” they were exploited in an election.

After Trump returned to office, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s office obtained voting machines and data from Puerto Rico in May 2025 for forensic testing. Her office said it found concerning cybersecurity and operational practices but released few supporting details.

The Republican-controlled House passed the SAVE Act on Feb. 11, 2026, but the measure has stalled in the Senate, where it lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Trump’s March 2025 executive order sought to require proof of citizenship for voter registration and bar counting mail ballots that arrive after election night. Federal courts have blocked major parts of the order, ruling the president cannot unilaterally rewrite election law.

That timing is one reason some officials said they expected Thursday’s address to combine declassified intelligence with a renewed push for voting legislation.

Whether Trump releases evidence beyond previously disclosed influence operations will not be clear until he speaks Thursday night.

UPDATE: The White House tells us President Trump’s speech will not focus on Georgia’s 2020 elections.

Georgia Republican source adds to us that they were notified of speech and the upcoming report’s initial Georgia election
focus in advance.

Speech set for Thursday at 9pm. https://t.co/ejjmtpqkHs

— Washington Reporter (@DC_Reporter) July 14, 2026